In my June 7th post I discussed John Donohue's letter to the Columbus Dispatch. Well, Professor David Mayer at the Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio has joined the fray with a letter in today's Dispatch. Professor Mayer raises questions about the emotional tone of Donohue's letter, and he addresses whether Ayres and Donohue's own statistical evidence shows what they claim that it does. One point that I would add is that while Ayres and Donohue have now written several pieces between them on right-to-carry laws, none of their papers have appeared in refereed journals.

Update:

An e-mailer asks about whether the Ayres and Donohue piece in the American Law and Economics Review was refereed. While the original papers in that journal are indeed refereed, their piece was a review article and my understanding from Ayres was that it was not refereed.